Congressman Mike Honda (D-CA) today joined House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (CA) in calling immediate for investigations of the distorted intelligence used by the Bush Administration to deceive the American people - including members of the U.S. Congress - into supporting a misguided push for the Iraq War. Congressman Mike Honda of California served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in El Salvador in the 1960's.

Washington, DC - Congressman Mike Honda (D-CA) today joined House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (CA) in calling immediate for investigations of the distorted intelligence used by the Bush Administration to deceive the American people - including members of the U.S. Congress - into supporting a misguided push for the Iraq War.

Leader Pelosi introduced a privileged resolution to demand that Republican Congressional leadership comply with their oversight responsibilities and conduct a thorough investigation of abuses relating to the Iraq War. The resolution failed by a party line vote, 220 to191, when Republicans unanimously moved to table, or effectively kill, the resolution.

"The war in Iraq has resulted in the loss of more than 2,000 American lives and more than 15,000 wounded soldiers, and has cost the American people hundreds of billions of dollars," Honda said. "The Republican leadership in Congress has completely forsaken its responsibility to provide oversight, and this Resolution seeks to restore that duty."

"Congress has the responsibility to find out why so many things in Iraq have gone so terribly wrong - that is why I asked the House to investigate abuses relating to Iraq," Pelosi said. "Yet Republicans again thwarted efforts to answer the questions of the American people. This Republican cover-up Congress refuses to live up to its oversight responsibility."

In demanding an investigation by the Republican Congress, Honda cited the absence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, evidence of the Bush Administration's efforts to discredit critics of the Iraq war, and the exposure of prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Guantanamo, and Afghanistan.

Congressman Honda strongly opposed the nation's invasion of Iraq, and voted 'NO' on the proposal to send troops to Baghdad.

"Congress has an obligation to identify and correct the problems that led to the production of flawed intelligence," Honda said. "To this point, Republican leadership has failed in its duty to scrutinize this process."

When this story was posted in November 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:

PC establishes awards for top VolunteersGaddi H. Vasquez has established the Kennedy Service Awards to honor the hard work and service of two current Peace Corps Volunteers, two returned Peace Corps Volunteers, and two Peace Corps staff members. The award to currently serving volunteers will be based on a demonstration of impact, sustainability, creativity, and catalytic effect. Submit your nominations by December 9.

Why blurring the lines puts PCVs in dangerWhen the National Call to Service legislation was amended to include Peace Corps in December of 2002, this country had not yet invaded Iraq and was not in prolonged military engagement in the Middle East, as it is now. Read the story of how one volunteer spent three years in captivity from 1976 to 1980 as the hostage of a insurrection group in Colombia in Joanne Marie Roll's op-ed on why this legislation may put soldier/PCVs in the same kind of danger. Latest: Read the ongoing dialog on the subject.

Peace Corps at highest Census in 30 yearsCongratulations to the Peace Corps for the highest number of volunteers in 30 years with 7,810 volunteers serving in 71 posts across the globe. Of course, the President's proposal to double the Peace Corps to 15,000 volunteers made in his State of the Union Address in 2002 is now a long forgotten dream. With deficits in federal spending stretching far off into the future, any substantive increase in the number of volunteers will have to wait for new approaches to funding and for a new administration. Choose your candidate and start working for him or her now.

'Celebration of Service' a major successThe Peace Corps Fund's 'Celebration of Service' on September 29 in New York City was a major success raising approximately $100,000 for third goal activities. In the photo are Maureen Orth (Colombia); John Coyne (Ethiopia) Co-founder of the Peace Corps Fund; Caroline Kennedy; Barbara Anne Ferris (Morocco) Co-founder; Former Senator Harris Wofford, member of the Advisory Board. Read the story here.

PC apologizes for the "Kasama incident"The District Commissioner for the Kasama District in Zambia issued a statement banning Peace Corps activities for ‘grave’ social misconduct and unruly behavior for an incident that occurred on September 24 involving 13 PCVs. Peace Corps said that some of the information put out about the incident was "inflammatory and false." On October 12, Country Director Davy Morris met with community leaders and apologized for the incident. All PCVs involved have been reprimanded, three are returning home, and a ban in the district has since been lifted.

The Peace Corps LibraryPeace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related stories in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can find hundreds of stories about what RPCVs with your same interests or from your Country of Service are doing today. If you have a web site, support the "Peace Corps Library" and link to it today.

Friends of the Peace Corps 170,000 strong170,000 is a very special number for the RPCV community - it's the number of Volunteers who have served in the Peace Corps since 1961. It's also a number that is very special to us because March is the first month since our founding in January, 2001 that our readership has exceeded 170,000. And while we know that not everyone who comes to this site is an RPCV, they are all "Friends of the Peace Corps." Thanks everybody for making PCOL your source of news for the Returned Volunteer community.

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Story Source: American Chronicle

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Figures; COS - El Salvador; Politics; Congress; Intelligence Issues

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